Passages

Two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson, 40, and her beau, Greg Wise, 33, an actor she met while filming her adaptation of Sense and Sensibility in 1995, are expecting a child sometime toward the end of the year, the first little one for both. Thompson, who is divorced from actor-director Kenneth Branagh, recently told Britain's Daily Mail that she doesn't know what she'll call the baby: "I have been busy thinking up names...but they keep getting pooh-poohed by my partner, the young Mr. Wise. So far I have come up with Winston, Clementine and Pebbles, but they have all been rejected."...

Fiery songstress Sinead O'Connor, 32, is expecting a third child early next year. Irish journalist Neil Michael is the father-to-be. O'Connor has a 3-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son from two previous relationships.

Deaths

Astronaut Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr., 69, who commanded the Apollo 12 lunar mission and was the third human being to set foot on the moon—where he literally exclaimed "Whoopee!"—died in a low-speed motorcycle accident on July 8 near Ojai, Calif., a town named after the Chumash word for moon. There are now nine living moon walkers, all of whom are in their 60s....

Big-band belter Helen Forrest, 82, who sang with orchestras led by Artie Shaw, Harry James and Benny Goodman and whose signature song was "I Had the Craziest Dream," died of congestive heart failure on July 11 in Los Angeles....

Daredevil parachutist Thor Axel Kappfjell, who made New York City tabloid headlines as Norway's Human Fly by surreptitiously—and illegally—leaping from the top of the Empire State Building and the World Trade Center, died on July 6 after taking a 3,300-foot dive into a fjord in his native country and accidentally slamming into a cliff. He was 32.

Engaged
Actress Christa Miller, 35, who plays Kate on The Drew Carey Show, said "Yes" when her swain, Bill Lawrence, 30, a TV writer-producer, popped the question on July 3 in London. The couple have yet to set a wedding date.

Births

Tanya Tucker, 40, delivered a 7-lb. baby girl, Layla La-Costa Laseter, on June 25 in Nashville, the first child for the country queen and her fiancé, Jerry Laseter, 37, a songwriter. Tucker has two kids—daughter Presley, 10, and son Beau, 7—from a previous relationship with actor Ben Reed....

It was seventh heaven on July 6 for singer and talk show host Marie Osmond, 39, when she gave her brood of six a new baby brother. Matthew R. Blosil (8 lbs. 4 oz.) arrived in Provo, Utah, with dad Brian Blosil, 46, a record producer, lending a hand.

Law and Order
During an undercover drug sting on June 29 in L.A., cops busted '70s teenybopper heartthrob Leif Garrett, 37, for possession of cocaine and heroin. Garrett, who is free on $10,000 bail, will find out at a hearing on Aug. 13 whether he'll go to jail or be eligible for drug counseling.

Wed
Actress Rosie Perez, 34, married her longtime fella, Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, 37, a filmmaker, in two ceremonies recently—a family-only "spiritual" one on July 9, followed by a legal one the next day at a chi-chi club in Brooklyn. Guests included actors Marisa Tomei, Wesley Snipes and Aidan Quinn.